


The Andrade Mansion Murder Mystery

by Tea_Queen_2112



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Anita acts as Sherlock with Pathfinder as her Dr Watson, Deception, Detective Story, Drug Use, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Loba x Bangalore peppered in, M/M, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29548836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tea_Queen_2112/pseuds/Tea_Queen_2112
Summary: A party at Loba's mansion goes horribly wrong when a guest is found murdered in his room. With the killer among them, Anita steps up as head detective and must deduce who the murderer is. Alongside her is her newly promoted assistant, Pathfinder. As Anita becomes more embroiled in the plot she learns not even her dearest friends can be trusted to tell the entire truth.Not all her friends can be trusted.
Relationships: Bloodhound/Mirage | Elliott Witt, Crypto | Park Tae Joon/Wattson | Natalie Paquette, Loba Andrade/Bangalore | Anita Williams
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	1. Blackout

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so I started writing the bulk of this towards the end of season 5 so no characters past Loba appear. I left it after uni/covid and I'm starting to write it again. They'll have small mentions here and there but overall I'm sticking with the base characters. I.e No Rampart, Horizon, Fuse etc. 
> 
> Other then that sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy.

Bangalore had never been a party person. Growing up in a military family there wasn’t much time for partying or celebrating unless it was a rare occasion. They bored her. Loud music didn't light a candle to the sound of gunfire. If it was up to her to plan these Apex parties she would plan a night on the range with a couple of cold beers. 

Meetings with sponsors almost always turned into small get-togethers for the competitors. Mirage was 99% of the time the instigator for them turning from meetings about the future of the games into raving parties. They always followed the same format. Meet up, show off the new gadgets, discuss the new rules, end the meeting, Mirage would start the party and everybody gets piss drunk. While Bangalore was never one spoil the fun she left before the night was out. Being stuck on a small private island she didn't have much of a choice in the matter this time. 

This particular evening they were being graciously hosted by Miss Loba Andrade. Loba having her own private island meant for complete privacy. Her mansion provided a small amount of elegance to the night. A true celebration of the new season starting soon. With the entertainment provided by Octavio and Elliott tending to the bar the night was gearing up to be one of the best ones yet. 

Though the party had ended the legends had thought to remain inside, Anita thought differently. If they were going to be back in the ring within the next week then she wanted to be in peak physical condition. She sat about half a mile away from the mansion, the warm sand underneath the palms of her hands. She had twenty laps down and another ten to go. Running always helped to keep her sense sharp and keep her training tight. She didn't get to be a top legend by skipping her workouts. 

She’d been playing in the games for two years and she still didn’t have enough money. It seemed every time she got close enough to buying her travel ticket the prices only skyrocketed. Her eyes always cast up to the clear unmarked skies. The stars cast a map over the blackness of it all. It was rare for her to get a moment that was to herself. She'd give up everything if she could get a single moment back home. She wasn't ungrateful for all she'd gained from the games but at the end of the day, cold steel didn't compare to a warm hug. The warmth of all her siblings hugging her at the same time. For now, she'd settle for the warmth of the sand. 

Bangalore was drawn from her thoughts as she heard the low rumble, almost thunderous sound. It didn’t sound like any hovercraft or ship she’d heard before. She had tried to ignore it until the sand under her physically began to shake. Within a second she was up and turned to face the mansion. 

As soon as her eyes were upon the house she saw it. A shockwave was permeating throughout the whole building. A massive dome of energy radiated all around the island. Bangalore fell to her knees as the second shockwave of blue energy exploded from the house.

Once she was up she cast her eyes back to the mansion. The mansion was rendered pitch black aside from a blue glow that lingered. If it wasn't for the moonlight then she wouldn't be able to see a thing. 

She ran towards the house. It must have taken her at least five minutes to reach the main house. She threw the door open into the darkness of the house. Anita could use her watch’s faint glow to vaguely see what she needed to. A good soldier always carried three basic pieces of equipment with them. A gun, a medkit and a flashlight. Opening her pocket she took out the small plastic flashlight and shook it vigorously. 

From above her people were yelling from all directions. In the chaos, she would be the one to keep the law and order. Placing two fingers in her mouth she made a loud distinctive whistling noise.

The sound reverberated all around the front room. All the noise from above her seemed to halt to silence. 

“EVERYONE IN THE HALL. NOW! BASIC BLACKOUT PROCEDURE PEOPLE. MAIN HALL NOW.” She yelled, cupping the side of her mouth. 

She shone the light around but no one seemed to be on the bottom floor, though she did hear most of them on the first floor. 

After two minutes of walking around in the chaos, she found herself back in the main hall. It didn't take long before alarmed shouts soon died down and the sound of footsteps from above to come down to her level. In the hall, five legends stood there looking very agitated. The legends being Wraith, Gibraltar, Bloodhound, Lifeline and Octane. All of them holding a glowstick which Anita could only assume was either brought by Silva or Ajay. 

“Someone wanna explain what the hell happened?” Bangalore asked. 

“An electrical explosion we think. You weren't here, bruddah?” Gibraltar said. 

"I was out on the beach." Anita looked around. Everyone at various levels of being shaken but almost all of them looked out of it. 

“Where’s everyone else?” 

“I'm not sure. I’ll go round the rooms and check.” Gibraltar said. 

Only a couple of seconds after Gibi had left the room the lights had come back on, granted not as powerful as before but it was a start. Loba came out in her dressing gown with an old flashlight in her hand. Her hands were coated in what seemed like a thick black liquid, black residue smeared on her cheek. The woman's face was a storm in waiting. 

“I’m only in my bed for five minutes and you fry almost every single circuit in my house?! Don’t deny it was you gamer!” The woman’s eyes had locked onto the daredevil. Her nails threatening to stab him in the chest. Octane had puffed his chest out and looked like he was about to fight back.

Bangalore interjected before a full-scale argument could break out. 

“How’d you get the power going again?”

Loba stood down. She sighed, her hand went to rub her cheek. 

“A manual generator. Runs on bio-oil. A backup until we get power again. If we get power again.” her eyes were still sharply cast to Octane

Caustic and Wattson made an appearance from the upper floor, making their way down.

Now that most of the people were gathered they could get down to business. With the majority of the guests nowhere the others could catch up when they got down.

“Is everyone okay?” 

The room collectively nodded their heads. Their faces didn't give her much confidence.

She counted the sea of heads and was surprised when four people were missing. Technically speaking three people and one robot were accounted for. 

“Jacob, Mirage, Crypto and Pathfinder. Anyone know where they are?”

Jacob was the head of PR for the games but he also did some other technical things. Making the games as much of a spectacle as they could be. Adding new bombs and bullets and everything that made the games a truly graphic bloodsport. He was the messenger for the higher-ups in that regard. The crowd looked to each other, evidently not a single clue as to where any of them were.

Bloodhound stood forward from the group. 

“I can account for my love, he is still sleeping,” Bloodhound said. 

Bangalore’s raised her eyebrow. “He slept through that noise?” In all her time she hadn't really known Elliott to be a heavy sleeper. 

“It was a party. Miss Andrade had an unlimited bar as well as his own supply.” Bloodhound replied. 

Bangalore couldn’t believe how typical it was of the trickster to sleep through a minor explosion. Mentally checking him off the list she listened out for anyone else. 

“Speaking off Mirage. Your little lover owes me for the whiskey decanter he broke. It cost me 500 shards for that!” Loba said.

“Well I think that now that’s over we should work on getting the ele-”

Anita was startled by a sudden man's yelling. The whole group looking up to the staircase. The yelling continued as everyone looked at each other with uncertainty.

“Who the hell's screaming?” Anita asked. 

“That came from the third floor. Jacob's room is up there.” Loba said. 

“Dat scream. It’s Gibby’s.” Ajay added.

Anita thrust herself into motion, even without the added gunfire she moved at double the speed. No accidents were gonna happen on her watch. 

Once at the top of the upper floor steps they weren't able to see anything. Thick grey smoke was crowding the hallway. Anita covered her eyes, the smoke burned in her throat, the taste reminiscent of burning electrical. At the top of the staircase, there was a large window that gave a view of the beach. Using her elbow she thumped it three times before it burst open, the smoke soon leaving out the window, making breathing all the easier.

Once the curtain of smoke was lifted to a breathable amount she came upon Makoa, standing in front of a door in his casual shirt. Gibby stood outside as he was staring into the room. A horror-stricken look blanketing his eyes, hand covering his mouth.

“Gibs! What’s up?”

Being met with his silence she looked at what his eyes seemed locked on.

The door to Jacob’s room looked like it had been blown off its hinges, the keypad had been more or less a puddle of molten metal. The door frame still seemed to be smoking. The door had fallen into the room. Anita coughed twice before covering her nose as she entered. 

The candles by the sofa were still burning, the wax melting onto the wooden varnished surfaces. The lights overhead had shattered, leaving glass all around the floor. Some of the glass was more cracked than others. In the middle of the floor was a strange large grey lump. The more steps she took towards the lump the more she began to realise what exactly it was that was laid on the floor. The look that had appeared on Gibraltar’s face now appearing on hers. 

Jacobs unmoving body was in the middle of the floor. His skin had turned an unnatural pale colour. His dark eyes had already dilated. The most noticeable thing was his normally smooth neck was raised, the bone threatening to break out from underneath his skin. His jaw hanging loosely open. Anita had seen dead bodies as part of her IMC training. The display before her was like the training simulators. Where you snuck up behind the dummies and use your own hands to break the enemies neck. 

Anita held up her fist. The others who followed behind her slowly stopping in their tracks. 

“Hold up! We got a body here!”

When everyone was behind the door she took a closer inspection of the body. 

The warmth was fleeting from beneath her fingertips as she brushed her fingers against his deformed neck. If her estimation was correct then he’d been killed then no less than 10 minutes ago. No doubt shortly after the explosion had occurred. This was a crime scene and it needed to be preserved. She blew out the candles he’d lit around the room, it was one thing to have a crime scene. The last thing she needed was for it to go up in smoke. 

As she inspected the body the more confused she became. All the markings on his face indicated a struggle. The room was messy and he doubted that Jacob caused the mess on his own.

His body was slightly lifted up off the ground. Bangalore moved his shoulder upwards and found the source of the bump. Underneath his body, she pulled out a small metal rectangle. She turned it to the front to reveal a simple phone-shaped device, the metal was burning hot against her fingertips. She hissed as she dropped the device on the carpet. As it lay on the ground she got a better look at it The EMP device. It had been a device that was shown to them earlier. During the earlier meeting, they explained how it was going to be introduced to the game next season. 

“A sponsor? Dead! I don’t know much but I know that this is not good amigos. Still...” Silva went to pull out his phone, Ajay’s hand yanked it right back down. 

“What happened to him? Please tell me it looks like a heart attack.” Loba asked. The thief didn’t spook easily so the thought of someone dying in her home evidently shook her. 

The lump underneath the skin of his neck didn’t inspire much confidence within her. As much as she wanted to blame it on a fall there was no way a fall would cause his neck to break to that extent. Since she was 10 years old she knew the difference between breaking a neck from an accident and breaking a neck with malicious intent. Her teachers at IMC made sure she knew the difference. 

“Maybe he just tripped over something when the EMP went off?” Loba suggested. 

“Tripped over what? Besides, the EMP is right under his body. If he had been using it, it would have fallen around him. Why would he even have it? Let alone use it.”

The legends were now all glancing towards each other. The indication of what happened lingered in the air. 

“An intruder?” Lifeline guessed. 

Loba scoffed. “We’re on my island. My security would have picked up something if someone else was in the building. I think I’d know if I had an intruder.” If Loba could talk with her hand gestures her nails were an exclamation point. Anita had noticed Loba's security the moment they arrived at the island. The cameras were littered all around the house along with motion sensors all around the island, Loba evidently having top-notch security. If a stranger had made his way onto the sure she would have known about it. 

“Shit. It can’t be...” Anita stood back from the body. Everything in her mind was telling her that she shouldn’t pursue this. She should just wait until they could call the authorities. A part of her knew better. 

“Whatcha’ saying?” Ajay asked.

Anita turned to the face of the small group that was standing on the outside of the door. If her suspicions were correct then something far more sinister was going on. Everything led to the same conclusion. The room was warm but everyone could feel the ice turn within their veins.

“Until I can find evidence to suggest otherwise. This is a homicide.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anita sets up how the interrogations are gonna work and Path is assigned her partner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again enjoy the fic and please R&R. After this chap the interviews begin and we get to the really good stuff.

The fancy decorum of the manor couldn’t take away from the feeling of unease that lingered around everyone. Everyone had seen the body, thought Anita didn’t need a second opinion to confirm it had been a brutal murder. Loba’s walk-in fridge was a makeshift morgue to preserve the fresh corpse until they could contact the correct authorities. 

They’d all gathered together in the living room. The tapping of Lifeline’s fingers against the table provided some noise in the silence, accompanied by Bloodhound’s carving, their knife slicing the driftwood periodically. 

Octane was pacing around the room, turning on his heel what seemed every two seconds. His whole body seemed like it was fidgeting. With the lack of electronics, he was showing the first signs of withdrawal. Anita could say with certainty that either Wraith or Loba were going to snap at him. Everyone was beginning to get tired and cold. While the lights were back up and running the same couldn’t be said for the heating. 

She counted nine out of the twelve people invited. Mirage and Jacob already had their excuses but two remained unseen. 

An awful noise sounded out from the hallway. An awful metal scraping sound pierced the ears of everyone in the room. The type that you’d hear at Rampart’s welding shop. 

Crypto kicked the door open, the metal body only just hanging off the hacker’s shoulder. The robot’s head was hanging limply and his whole body was slack. The legs were tearing up Loba’s carpet which she looked rather unpleasantly at. 

“What the hell happened to him?”

“He’s rebooting. The EMP wrecked him but he’ll be fine.”

The other legends moved off the lounger as Crypto moved him onto it. 

If Jacob’s corpse had indicated anything it was that the small pieces of shrapnel had entered his body premortem. If the EMP was set off before Jacob died, Pathfinder was innocent. That and given the fact the EMP fried every piece of tech Pathfinder had to have been far enough away that it didn’t affect him. 

He was the only one she could trust. 

\----------------------------

After Wattson and Crypto went to investigate they learned every single piece of tech within the house was done for. The phones and holovids were down so calling the appropriate authorities weren’t an option. They were gonna have to solve this one themselves. By this point, Path was up and at it again, albeit a little groggy. 

Loba had managed to find them an old pinboard. A bit primitive but Anita supposed that Andrade was being literal when she said she was the girl who had everything. The board had a mocked-up timeline of the evening. A string indicated the timeline of the evening if she could determine that she could determine the killer. Loba had ever so kindly set it up in the drawing-room. That would be her base of operations. 

Pathfinder had been filled in on what happened after his short circuit and was more than eager to lend his hand in helping. 

Regrettably, he’d had spent most of the evening trying to call some robot lady he’d found in a dumpster. Most of the evening was spent away from Jacob. Though it didn’t help them a lot it was better than him being completely inactive. 

With everyone finally accounted for, the interrogations could begin. 

“Here’s how it’s going to work, people. Me and Pathfinder are the head detectives on this case. We’ll-”

Octane, out of all people, jumped to his feet. Ajay, accustomed to this behaviour simply waiting to jump in at any given moment. 

“Hey! Why the robot? I have a solid alibi! I was streaming. I’ve always wanted to be a hardboiled detective. With Ajay as my sarcastic yet lovable sidekick.” He gestures his whole hand towards her. 

Ajay scoffed. “Sidekick? You’re on ya way to a sore arm, Silva. I’m the head detective.” 

“Don’t be salty chica! You get to make all the wisecracks.”

It was only seconds before Octane was sent to the floor. His arm was held in pain, glaring daggers at Ajay. 

Despite Anita wanting to rule them out early, she couldn’t afford to take that risk. Anyone could have been capable of this crime and thus everyone had to be interrogated. There was an ice cube's chance in hell of it being Octane anyway but taking chances was for rookies. 

“With no online tech we can’t confirm you were streaming. And with Mirage in an alcohol-induced coma, I have little choice. Path is the only one with a solid alibi until further notice. He’ll be my partner.”

“Why do you even need a sidekick?”

She turned to look at Path, the robot looking expectantly down at her. If the murderer was one of them, backup was a necessary evil. As her mother said it was always better to be cautious then to be stupid. And, though hesitant to admit it, Pathfinder might notice something she couldn’t. He was a robot for crying out loud. Outside of the ring she really wouldn’t hang around Path so it might be a nice bonding experience.

Her response was shut down abruptly. 

Caustic, rose up from his place. Everyone was bracing themselves for whatever it was that he had to say. The man was about as popular as a stick up the ass. 

“This is ridiculous. How do we know you didn’t kill him? With you putting yourself as a head detective it would be easy to pin the murder on any one of us.” Caustic got up close and personal with her. He may have had his size but Anita had her strength. He wasn’t so tough when he didn’t have his chemicals. 

“Do any of you really think I’d kill a civi? I’m not you Knox.”

The more reasonable of the legends murmured in agreement. With everyone’s eyes cast judgmentally on him Caustic scoffed but took his place. The tension leached out of him like an acrid poison.

“I was outside of the blast radius when it happened. Look. My watch is still active. Look at the history if you want proof.” She chucked the watch at him and held it tightly. His scowl not phrasing her. 

“With that debate sorted, we can start. You all stay here. We call you one by one to the drawing-room. I'll get your individual version of events. None of you are gonna lie to me. You understand that?”

Her commanding voice rippled through all of them. No objections were raised. Just the way she liked it. 

With everything laid out openly, she brought Path to the drawing-room. 

The green pinboard looked rather sparse. The whole room looked more expensive then what Anita would earn in a year. The desk alone was definitely worth more than a ticket back to Gridiron. All the luxury was nice but far too big. She often wondered why Loba needed so much space to herself. The whole place would be silent if it wasn’t for them. 

She stared up the board before her, her thoughts turning away from the thief.

“What shall we do next friend?”

“You’re not my friend Path.” 

His mechanical body went stiff. He had a momentary frowny face upon his screen. She hadn’t meant for it to come off as harsh. 

After a moment of hesitation, she snapped her fingers. “I’m your boss for the night. Which means you listen to what I say.”

Pathfinder stood straight and gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up. “Okay Boss! I look forward to working with you. What do we have so far on the investigation?”

She’d pinned the pieces of paper to the board, noting the events chronologically. They worked with what they had. Bangalore would have killed for a piece of tech, but pen and paper weren’t completely obsolete. 

She pointed to the first pin. “7 pm, The sponsors give us a rundown of the new season, new tech, new legend. 8 pm, The party starts. Rampart and the other higher-ups leave the island aside from Jacob. 12pm, an EMP goes off. 12:13 am Jacob is found dead in his room. COD is a broken neck. Other bruising indicates a struggle between the perp and the vic. No motive is clear.”

Between eight and the twelve was a huge gap that needed to be filled. Whatever it was that had happened within those four hours she was going to find. 

“Who is the first person to interview, friend?” Pathfinder asked. 

“Seeing as an EMP took everything out. The one who knows about EMPS.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: Crypto's in the hot seat. Will this hacker handle the heat of the interrogation?


End file.
